If you have been following my financial journey for a short while, or the last four years, you will know that I believe transparency is absolutely key for anyone in this space. As such, I have been sharing my extra earnings every single month as I attempt to increase my side hustle income through various methods to show that it is possible to make money on top of your wages.

October has been without a doubt the best month on record for additional earnings. So, without further ado, here is how I got on.

The Bank Engine: £1,097.43

October was the most successful month to date for The Bank Engine as ZING returned with a huge referral offer paying both sides £30 each which contributed massively towards the revenue of the business, alongside Webull returning towards the end of the month with a high-paying free share referral offer.

Alongside this, I was very pleased that the SEO (search engine optimisation) of the website ended up with increased traffic to the site from specific search terms. There are some pages for referral schemes which are ranking at 1st place on Google above the companies’ actual websites which blows my mind!

As always, none of this is possible without everyone reading this supporting The Bank Engine and I am exceptionally grateful for that.

Mystery Shopping: £318.75

Having now done mystery shopping for a while, I have noticed that there tends to be more opportunities to increase your income in the run-up to Christmas and it certainly hasn’t disappointed last month, here are the 3 apps I used and the specific jobs I did:

Roamler

• 1 x Red Bull store visit (visit store & speak to them about a potential Red Bull display): £50.00

• 3 x Morrisons Daily store checks (visit stores & measure shelf space): £49.50

• 4 x Red Bull unit builds (visit stores & build cardboard Red Bull units): £44.00

• 2 x Yazoo unit checks (visit stores & check whether units are out): £25.00

• 6 x Hair care checks (visit stores, capture images of hair care bays & answer questions): £20.00

• 2 x Red Bull stock checks (visit stores, record stock levels & re-stock shelves if needed): £20.00

• 1 x Chewing gum till check (visit store, capture images of self-checkout areas for new units): £17.50

• 16 x Rate & Review tasks (visit store, capture images, purchase items & review at home): £17.00 + free products

• 1 x Leffe unit check (visit store, check if received unit & put out if needed): £14.00

• 1 x Home care check (visit store, capture images of home care bays & answer questions): £7.00

• 1 x Butter check (visit store, capture images of butter bays & record stock levels): £7.00

• 1 x Punchy drink task (visit store, capture images, record stock levels & purchase drinks): £4.00 + free drinks

Shepper

• 2 x M&S Shopping List tasks (visit store, locate 50 items, record stock levels & capture images): £32.00

• 1 x M&S Mystery Shop (visit store, capture images & answer questions): £15.00

• 1 x HotHands unit check (visit store, locate unit and capture images): £10.00

• 1 x Tesco Mobile Mystery Shop (visit store, capture images & answer questions): £7.00

• 1 x Currys Mystery Shop (visit store, capture images & answer questions): £7.00

• 1 x M&S Signage check (visit store, capture images of signs where available): £4.50

SmartSpotter

• 2 x Cat treat checks (visit stores, capture images of cat treat bays & answer questions): £9.00

• 1 x Heinz check (visit store, capture images of sauces): £7.00

• 1 x Yoghurt check (visit store, capture images of yoghurt bays & answer questions): £5.00

• 1 x Lego check (visit store, capture images of Lego bays & answer questions): £4.50

• 1 x Air care check (visit store, capture images of air care bays & answer questions): £4.50

• 1 x Beer check (visit store, capture images of beer bays & answer questions): £4.00

Market Research & Surveys: £192.07

Market research opportunities are like buses and very much come all at once, and that’s what happened in October as I was able to complete a few well-paying studies.

Angelfish Opinions: £75

This is an ongoing study I have been part of for well over a year now and is with one of the world’s largest brands. I was invited to it via Angelfish Opinions and it’s the only thing I’ve ever got through them but has earned me £100s so far!

During October I earned £5 as a participation bonus and completed a 1 hour video call discussing my opinions on advertising around sports events which I will receive £70 for. Both of these will be in the form of gift vouchers which I will redeem in tranches for either Tesco or M&S which will pay for future groceries.

Dscout: £102.15

This app is fast becoming a new favourite and in October I completed my first two live market research calls with them, both of which were so easy to complete.

The first one was looking at a new budgeting app which is obviously right up my street and this paid me $75 for a 1 hour call which I completed one evening after work.

The second call was looking at a new-ish cashback service which has been launched and comparing it to similar services on offer. This call lasted 45 minutes and paid $60.

I also did a short video survey (<2 minutes) on the app which was about my music habits which paid $2.

All of these amounts were paid/ will be paid via PayPal which will go straight towards a savings pot for our upcoming goals.

THX: £10

This app is so easy for earning gift cards. I am averaging around £10 per month for doing the following things:

• Giving my opinions on TV ads every few days (<30 seconds per time)

• Allowing access to my location data

I cashed out in October for a £10 Sainsbury’s voucher which went towards groceries we would have paid for anyway.

Google Rewards: £4.92

Another app you should definitely have on your phone! I don’t know if this works better on Android (which I use) but effectively, I earn between 10p-30p regularly through this app for:

• Answering whether I spent inside a store I visited (uses Google Maps data to track you)

• Uploading receipts if I did

It is paid as Google Play credit but I just use this to pay for Disney+ which would be paid for anyway. You can get the app on iOS and you get paid via PayPal but I’m unsure quite how frequently you can earn compared to Android!

NielsenIQ: £25.00

This will probably be the last amount of income from this app as it’s a decent app but it’s just a slog for the amount you earn. NielsenIQ gives you points for uploading your receipts and scanning your shopping each week and you can earn roughly £50 per year from my calculations.

Now that I am earning more from receipt scanning through Google Rewards, I am planning to stop using NielsenIQ after cashing out for a voucher in October.

Cashback: £14.15

Chase 1%: £4.50

There were some larger costs I incurred in October and to ensure I maximised my returns on them I put them on my Chase card to earn 1% cashback.

EverUp: £9.65

Where I wasn’t using gift cards that I earned in some of the above examples, I purchased gift cards via the EverUp app to ensure I was earning the best cashback possible. Find out more about EverUp here.

Lifetime ISA Bonus: £83.33

I am currently saving for the deposit on my first home, along with my partner, and we both do this in our own Lifetime ISAs - a Government backed scheme that allows you to save £4,000 per tax year and receive a 25% bonus on however much you save into the account.

I pay in £333.33 per month into my Lifetime ISA to reach this maximum £4,000 per year and as such receive a bonus of £83.33 per month from the Government. I currently use Nutmeg for my Lifetime ISA which is a Stocks & Shares Lifetime ISA.

Bank Interest: £66.06

I LOVE passive income, and bank interest is the best form of passive income as its your money working for you. Alongside my current Stocks & Shares Lifetime ISA, I have a Cash Lifetime ISA with Moneybox which I paid into for a good number of years and this is where the bulk of my bank interest comes from each month.

Dividends: £4.94

Dividends are largely like bank interest, but you receive them for investing in the stock market. They reflect a share of the profits of companies that you have invested in and are paid semi-regularly depending on how you invest.

If you are new to investing, or just want to learn more, you can check out my free investing guide here.